Satterlee Stops Lanigan In Delaware

DELMAR, Del. — After a disappointing two-week trip through the Midwest, Gregg Satterlee returned to his home region and returned to form with a victory in Thursday night’s Fulton Bank 50 at Delaware Int’l Speedway.

Satterlee, 30, of Indiana, Pa., survived a close call in traffic and turned back challenges from Darrell Lanigan at the half-mile oval in southern Delaware, earning $10,050 for his third career World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory.

“We had kind of a rough couple of weeks, but that’s part of traveling,” said Satterlee, who scored just one top-10 finish in four WoO LMS appearances in traveling with the WoO LMS to Illinois and Wisconsin in late July and early August. “We’re learning and getting better. I’m sure if we hadn’t done all that traveling we wouldn’t be standing up here (in victory lane) tonight.”

Sixth-starting Lanigan, the two-time WoO LMS champion and current point leader, was second at the finish, 0.343 seconds behind Satterlee. Fourth-starting Austin Hubbard was just behind the two leaders in third, while Tim Fuller advanced from eighth to finish fourth. Seventh-starting Ross Robinson rounded out the top five in a race slowed by four caution flags.

Satterlee’s victory featured plenty of drama. Starting from the pole, his Satterlee Petroleum Distributors-sponsored Rocket Chassis got the jump on outside polesitter Amanda Whaley of Millsboro, Del., who quickly dropped to the tail of the field after she pushed far up the track entering the first corner.

Whaley had made history earlier in the evening when she became the first female driver to ever make the redraw for a WoO LMS event with her second-place heat race finish. But her lap-one miscue dashed chance to become the first female to win a WoO LMS A-Main.

Whaley’s push up the track created a scramble among the front few rows, and Lanigan took advantage to charge from sixth to second on the race’s opening lap. He soon began applying pressure to Satterlee, making low-side bids for the lead through the race’s opening laps with Hubbard lurking just behind in third.

The leaders caught the tail of the field by lap 14, setting up a tense battle. Satterlee opened the door for Lanigan to take the lead when he attempted to drive around tail-running Whaley on lap 17 and slid high in turn two. But Lanigan repeated Satterlee’s mistake on the following lap, giving Satterlee room to muscle his way back into the lead on lap 18.

The excitement continued on the following lap when Satterlee got into the back of Nick Davis of Millsboro, Del., while trying to put him a lap down. The contact turned Davis sideways directly in front of Satterlee, but Satterlee stayed in the throttle and used more contact to push Davis’ car up the banking and out of his path.